Wall mounted book holder



Sept. 5, 1967 MGCABE v 3,339,746

WALL MOUNTED BOOK HOLDER` Filed Aug. 16, 1965 Y/11 ill i 20/ y 97j f y l l /r United States Patent O 3,339,746 WALL MOUNTED BOOK HOLDER Lennard McCabe, Winnetka, Ill., assignor to Merlin Manufacturing Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Aug. 16, 1965, Ser. No. 479,995 1 Claim. (Cl. 211--43) vABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A holder for books or the like is provided for use in conjunction with a conventional Wall book shelf apparatus having vertical strips with openings in which the shelf hangers engage. The holder comprises an extruded rail extending between two adjacent strips. At the rear, the rail denes the T-shaped slot into which is engaged the heads of mounting clips. The clips have hooks to hold the clips onto the strips. At the front, the rail delines a pair of longitudinal ways, which ways are in the form of diverging slots. Received in and engaged in the slots are the feet of holders for the books or the like. The holders are in the form of bands which form the feet as well as the material between the feet. By springing the band, the feet can be moved toward or away from each other to enable the feet to be engaged or disengaged from the slots.

The present invention relates to a holder for objects such as books, phonograph records and the like, which are supported on a shelf in front of a wall and the holder is adapted to be mounted on the wall above the shelf.

While embodiments of the present invention can be aixed directly to a wall above and along the rear side of a shelf, more generally they will be used in conjunction with shelf mounting hardware generally available in the stores. One common form of such hardware comprises vertical strips which are adapted to be secured to a wall in locations in which it is desired to have book shelves in front of that wall. These strips have a plurality of spaced openings. Shelf brackets extend outwardly from the strips and have means insertible through one or more of the openings to releasably support the bracket, and thus the shelf, from the strip. Since this means may be inserted into any of the openings, the vertical height of the bracket, with respect to the strip, may be selected by the user.

In the present invention a rail is mounted above and parallel to the rear edge of the shelf. Means are provided whereby the rail is held by the same strips that hold the shelf brackets. This means for holding the rail permits the rail to be raised or lowered along the strips just as the shelf is raised and lowered. Thus, the user can select a height for the book holders above the shelf after the shelf has been installed. Extending outwardly from the rail, and above the shelf, are two or more holders for the objects supported on the shelf. The desirability of having such holders is well known to anyone who has attempted to place such objects on shelves in an orderly arrangement.

Further objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view of a portion of a wall having book shelves and an embodiment of the invention mounted thereon;

FIGURE 2 is an end elevational view of the shelf and object holder of the present invention;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged partial section as viewed at line 3-3 of FIGURE l;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a segment of a rail of the present invention; and

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of one of the clips ICC used to support the rail of FIGURE 4 on the wall mounted strips supporting the shelf brackets in FIGURE 1.

Although the following disclosure offered for public dissemination is detailed to ensure adequacy and aid understanding, this is not intended to prejudice that purpose of a patent which is to cover each new inventive concept therein no matter how others may later disguise it by variations in form or additions or further improvements. The claims at the end hereof are intended as the chief aid toward this purpose; as it is these that meet the requirement of pointing out the parts, improvements, or combinations in which the inventive concepts are found.

A commonly available apparatus for mounting book shelves 10 on and in front of a wall 11 comprises strips 12 and shelf brackets 13. Strips 12 are secured to wall 11 as by means of screws 14. The strips have a plurality of spaced openings 15 with webs 16 therebetween. Shelf brackets 13 have means, not shown, insertible through openings 15 and engageable with strips 12 to hold the brackets in any selected position along the lengths of the strips.

Corning now to the present invention, a rail 20 is supported vfrom strips 12, in a position above and along the rear edge of the shelf 10, by means of clips-21. Rail 20 has a front face 22 with a plurality of spaced openings 23 therein. Above and below face 22 are ways in the form of slots 24. These slots are disposed at an angle with respect to each other. At the rear side are opposed flanges 25 which define a T-shaped slot 26. Each clip 21 has a head 28 which is received in slot 26. Head 28 may be inserted into slot 26 from the end of the rail. Once in the slot the head may be moved longitudinally of the rail, but it is prevented from moving directly away from the rail because of its being locked in place by flanges 25. This is best illustrated in FIGURE 3. An elbow 29 on clip 21 connects head 28 with the strip engaging means or latch 30'. Latch 30 is of a size to move through one of openings 15. It has a downwardly facing slot 3=1 into which one of webs 16 is received so as to lock the latch Onto the strip 12. By selecting which of openings 15 latch 30 is inserted into, the height of rail 20 above shelf 10 may be selected.

Holders 33 are engaged with rail 20 to fix the position of objects, such as books 34, on shelf 10. In the illustrated embodiment, holders 33 comprise a band of metal, a side 35 of which forms a supporting surface for the objects. The band 33 has two feet 36 angularly disposed with respect to each other and received in slots 24 in the rail. As best seen in FIGURE l, holders 33 have a substantial width (as measured parallel to the length of rail 20). The corresponding dimension of feet 36 is the same. To the extent that books 34 apply a force on holders 33 in a direction which might otherwise tend to move the holders apart, that force tends -to cock feet 36 in the ways and to lock the holders in place on the rail. However, if the holders are held directly at right angles to the rail, feet 36 will easily slide in slots 24 in a direction longitudinally of the rail. By grasping holder 33 at legs 37 thereof the two legs may be moved toward each other while at the same time feet 36 are disengaged from the ways 24. A reverse movement is employed to engage feet 36 with ways 24. Thus holders 33 may be removed from and reinserted on rails 20 at any given point therealong wi-thout disturbing objects or a holder positioned elsewhere along the shelf.

Normally, it is not necessary to have any restraint on rail 20 other than that provided by clips 21. Thus, the forces applied to holders 33 are in opposition and will not tend to displace the rail longitudinally thereof even though the frictional t between clips 21 and rail 20 is rather nominal. However, if desired, a screw 14 may be inserted through one or more of openings 23 in the rail to lock the rail to the wall. In some instances, where strips 12 are 3 not employed to hold the shelves, a rail 2t) may be held directly to the wall by screws 14 and clips 21 dispensed with.

The coniiguration of rail 20 as illustrated in the drawings is particularly adapted for manufacture by extrusion. Were it to be manufactured by bending sheet metal, anges 25 would be dispensed with. In that event, clip 21 would have arms extending upwardly and downwardly to lock about the top and bottom of rail 20 rather than using a head 28 as illustrated.

I claim:

Apparatus for holding objects such as books, phonograph records and the like and for use with bookshelves supported from at least two vertical wall strips at the back sides of the shelves and wherein said strips have openings spaced vertically therealong to receive the hangers of shelf supporting brackets, said apparatus including:

a rail formed as a portion of an extension which portion is of a length to extend between two of said strips with the back of the rail in juxtaposition to said strips and the front of the rail facing away from the strips, the rail having a longitudinal front face with a front way at each longitudinal edge of the face, said front ways being parallel to each other and extending the length of the portion, said ways being in the form of slots positioned at an angle to each other such that at the face the slots are closer together than they are rearwardly of said face, said rail at the rear thereof defining flanges extending the length of each edge of the rail, said flanges extending toward each other from the edges to dene with the back of the rail therebetween a T-shaped slot, said rail having a plurality of holes Vextending from front to back ,therethrough, said holes being spaced along the length of said face;

two holder means releasably connecting the rail to the strips, each holder means including a generally flat head slidably received in said T-shaped slot and held therein by said flanges against removal in a direction normal to said rail, and a clip connected to said head and extending outwardly from said rail portions lat approximately'right angles to said rail, said clip extending into said openings and hooking onto the strip to attach the holder means to the strip; two holdersin the form of a band of material with object supporting edges, each band terminating in two adjacent feet, the-feet being the two ends of the bands, one foot being received in one front slot and the other foot *being received in the other `front slot to secure the holder against a pivotal movement with respect to the rail, said band extending outwardly from the feet at approximately right angles to the rail, said feet being movable toward and away from each other by flexing said band to enable the feet to be disengagedvfrom the rail.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,508,579 9/1924 Saltenberger 21l--l05.2 1,529,983 3/1925 Bond .2H-105.2 2,346,150 4/1944 Brown 211--184 X 3,121,494 2/1964 Berk 211-43 FOREIGN PATENTS 510,146 2/1955 Canada. Y

535,513 1/1957' Canada.

177,349 11/1961 Sweden.

ROY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner.

A. FRANKEL, Assistant Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENT oEEICE CERTIFICATE 0F CORRECTION Patent No. 3,339,746 September 5, 1967 Lennard McCabe It is hereby certified that error appears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below Column 3, line 19, for "extension" read extrusion column 4, lines 7 and 8, for "portions" read portion Signed and sealed this 5th day of November 1968.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD J. BRENNER Edward M. Fletcher, Jr.

Commissioner of Patents Attesting Officer 

